Librarians are Social Media Butterflies

In my last post I talked about how libraries can be using Twitter to connect with their users. But Twitter also allows librarians and library enthusiasts to connect with each other. I’ve been seeing a lot of great Twitter conversations going on between people in the library community. These are a few:

#followalibrarian – I love this hash tag. It’s like #followfriday but for librarians. On Friday’s you simply tweet recommendations of librarians on Twitter and tag it with #followalibrarian. I’ve connected with a lot of cool librarians by searching for this tag.

Sharing Articles and News – I find that Twitter is often doing a better job than my RSS reader at getting me good articles related to libraries and social media. Good content on Twitter seems to bubble up to the top through people retweeting and discussing articles. I also find new and different stuff instead of getting updates from the same blogs over and over. It’s a way to broaden the scope of your reading.

Tweetups – Twitter isn’t just online, people meet up in person. I went a tweetup at ACRL in March that was a lot of fun. I’ve been to a couple locally in the Burlington community. And I just saw a Massachusetts tweetup get planned via Twitter. Social media is great, but meeting in real life can’t be beat.

Conferences – Twitter is great for connecting with other librarians at conferences.You’ve likely heard the old adage that the most helpful part of conferences are the impromptu chats in the hall between sessions. Twitter’s the virtual version of that. It adds a whole other dimension to conferences and makes them a richer experience. I followed the recent Handheld Librarian online conference hashtag (which was even a trending topic) and got some great info. It’s great to be able to learn about what’s going on at a conference even if you can’t make it.

I’m really loving this community of librarians on Twitter and feel much more connected to librarians from New England to New Zealand. Are there other ways you’re using Twitter to connect with your colleagues?